Erik Neumann (OPB) , Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB); Vancouver library board removes ‘equitable access’ from strategic plan
"The Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries board removed references to equity from the district’s strategic plan at a contentious meeting Monday night.
A board member resigned after the vote, which followed a heated debate over intellectual freedom at a time when “diversity, equity and inclusion” policies have come under growing scrutiny.
The board meeting focused on whether to keep phrases about “equitable access” and “intellectual freedom” in the plan that will guide the library district for the next five years.
The plan has been under review for 10 months. Recently, some board members have said terms about equity and intellectual freedom should be replaced with more neutral language in the plan’s mission, vision and priorities, in order to avoid politicized terms.
After hearing dozens of public comments over nearly three hours of discussion, the board of trustees could not agree on whether to keep the equity language or approve the updates that would remove it.
Nearly all public comments during Monday’s meeting were in support of keeping “equitable access” and “intellectual freedom” in the strategic plan.
Likewise, a library staff report noted that over 80% of earlier public comments also supported retaining the equity language.
“The idea that the word ‘equity’ is divisive isn’t supported by the community surveys this board itself commissioned,” resident James Watson-Hughes said during public comment. “We can’t dismiss that data in favor of small samples of anecdotal conversations simply because the word makes some people feel uncomfortable.”
Late in the meeting, the board disregarded that input...
Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries Executive Director Jennifer Giltrap did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
During public comments on Monday, Diane Clark, a public services librarian for the Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries, advocated to keep the original equity language and said changing it would lead to a “one size fits all” approach to access that does not recognize different people’s varied needs.
“Equity demands that we be proactive,” Clark said. “It is the difference between simply keeping the doors open and actively building a bridge to communities that cannot reach the library.”"
